Yes, Harry hold your head in shame. Last November, I came out with a blog displaying my disappointment with Warner Brothers for delaying the Harry Potter movies solely on the fact of money. I also voiced my opinion that I was afraid that I would be disappointed with the changes the writer had made with the movie. Here are a few of the things that I said: The truth is this. They jerked us around. They set a release date and made trailers and sent out the information in all the magazines and then when we Potter maniacs thought all was well they came in like a heartless mistress and ripped our hearts out of chest.
Another things is I afraid that when I finally sit down in the seat on opening night of Harry Potter. I will be disappointed. I was disappointed once when it came to Harry Potter movies and have since that time never really trusted again. This was in the case of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which is by far my favorite of all the books. I really had a hard time with the movie due to the fact that they left a lot unexplained and that troubled me. I have a feeling that this might happen with this movie because some of the vital Tom Riddle memories will not be making an appearance in the movie. They have also added a Death Eater attack on the Burrow scene which doesn't happen until the last book.
This all held true too this movie as well. I left the theater just a little bit disappointed. I had spent the day before doing an exhaustive internet search on reviews of the movie. I'm glad I did because I knew what was coming. I had found out that some vital scenes at the end of the book had been cut from the movie due to budget and redundancy. SPOILER ALERT. Proceed only if you have seen the movie or don't care to have the news before hand. They cut the battle scene at the end of this book due to the fact that there would be another battle at Hogwarts in the last movie. Not to talk bad about the books but redundacny does happen. Every year follows the same pattern except for maybe the third year. Harry starts at the Dursley's, he then goes to school, they play Quidditch or some other sport activity happens three times, and Voldemort shows up and Harry has to fight him off. Redundancy is inevitable. This is what sarah replied shen I posed this theory to her, "It's like saying I'm sick of these wands popping up in every scene and Who's this Dumbledore guy that's up in everyone's business- redundant. Also, they add a Burrow attack scene which as stated before also happens in the last book- redundant. Needless to say, my general feelings about the show are this. The show took too much time playing up the romances between Hermione and Ron and Ginny and Harry (which was very flat and Ginny wasn't very good) and the teenage hormones (trying to compete with Twilight) and far less time trying to give Harry an understanding of who Voldemort is and what his weaknesses are. This is the whole premise of the book. It is a transfer of the reins from Dumbledore to Harry and if I was Harry and had the respondsibility of killing Voldemort and all I was given was the information that I got from this movie I would be screwed. Another thing that bugged me is that it seemed that they decreased the screen time of some of the Main adult characters and I was led to believe that this was die to budget since that is the only explanation that Warner Brothers has given me to explain why they do anything. I did however enjoy Professor Slughorn. I thought Jim Broadbent did very well. I understand that the movies can't be exactly like the books. It's just a fact that happens even though we wish it didn't. But movie required too much prior knowledge to fill in the gaps that I don't understand how anyone who hasn't read the book could have enjoy it. It would leave me hanging in several spots. The writer, instead of using the book's very easy way of putting the scenes together, decided to do something different and it came across as convoluted. It was like he took scenes from the book, wrote them on a paper, and placed them in a hat (apparently, not the Sorting Hat). He then withdrew them one by one and laced the scenes in a way that kind of destoryed the structure of the film for me. I am excited for the next two movies and my hope is that they make up for the blunder that they have done. They will have to invest a lot of time in the next to explain things they could have just done in this movie. Also, Sarah and I both enjoyed the film until the last twenty minutes where everything just fell apart. They had built up the whole time making us feel that something was going to happen. Which we wanted because the real action scene in the movie was the burrow. What a disappointment. The emotion weight didn't translate from the book to the screen. There was a disconnect. Overall, we hope the next two movies do a better job.
Make your own Countdown Clocks
A couple of weeks ago Sarah, Shannon, Brian, and I decided to go down the canal since Shannon and Brian would be moving out to Cleveland and this might be the last time they could go. It was indeed a very good day for a trip down the canal and I was excited to go. My excitement out weighed my judgement because I should have seen the signs that it was going to end in tears.
